A Touristic Point of View

Vienna, Austria: Knocking on Vienna’s Door

In-spite of its gloomy and freezing weather, Vienna was just like a piece of heaven. We went there by bus, departing from Prague, and it took us just 3 hours to reach Vienna International Bus Terminal (Erdberg). We got the tickets from Prague (Main Bus Station) 2 days before our departure and the prices were very reasonable and the journey was very comfortable too.

We booked an apartment for 3 person from Airbnb, it’s location was the best but I can not tell the same about its domestic services. It would have been cleaner as we expected and paid so. I recommend booking a hotel near the city center or an apartment with lots of good comments on it to have a peaceful sleep.

If you have limited days in Vienna just like I had, it’s better you read the rest carefully to make a compact Vienna tour without missing much of it.

Click on the image to see the original one

On the very first day, we checked in our apartment (Neubeugasse Street) at noon and started our Vienna tour from the city center. We got the “48 hours valid” subway tickets and a mini city map showing all the lines and stops to get to the main locations easily. I should say that, the subway lines and stations are so well organised that it is almost impossible to get lost in the city. Subway lines cover all the historical places in one route and/or transfer the lines just at the easiest points you may reach.

If you would like to see all the historical monuments, Cathedrals, parks and squares you should follow the Purple Line (U2) /Orange Line (U3) /Green Line (U4) on the subway map. The main touristic locations are also shown into the dark blue circles below.

Following the Orange Line (U3) we found the Vienna International Bus Terminal (Erdberg) and then reached the city center directly. Stephansplatz can be considered as the main touristic square of the city with a symbolic Cathedral located on it.

You can even visit the St. Stephen’s Cathedral (a.ka Stephansdom) some days until 12pm if it is a day of sacrament. On the Stephansplatz, there are lots of nice restaurants, souvenir shops, cafés and some men in Renaissance costumes convincing you to buy some tickets to a concert in the Mozarthaus.

You should go to a concert there if you have enough time!

I believe most of you heard about the classic dessert of Austria called Apfelstrudel. Cafe Central is the one which is really close to the Stephansdom, can be recommended to taste a true Viennese Apfelstrudel. We walked five minutes from the Stephansdome to find it on the corner of Herrengasse street. As we entered, we were amazed by its historic and artistic decoration. High sealing, paintings on the walls and vintage furniture will make you feel like acting in a costume drama movie.

Our next station was the Volkstheater and the Museums Quartier on the Purple Line (U2). We visited The Vienna Museum of Natural History and The Museum of the History of Arts sharing the same garden. If you are a student (no matter what your nationality is), you should carry your student card and benefit from the student discounts while getting the museum tickets. Each of the Museums are worth visiting and you can spare at least half a day for each one. It won’t be enough to visit both of them in one day but, anyway, you can have a little idea about evolving cultures and the life on earth – by all means. I am thinking of visiting Vienna once more to discover just those two museums more efficiently. Also Rathaus is a very popular district nearby and it is a nice street to find local shops and restaurants.

For the dinner time, It is a MUST to go to a restaurant serving very famous WIENER SCHNITZEL. Wiener Schnitzel is a delicious dish served with a side potato salad and it gets even better when consumed with a tasty wine.

We had couple of recommendations before deciding any restaurants and I can tell that, FIGLMULLER is the most preferred one among tourists. It has two different branches very close to each other. The most preferred is, of course, the Original one. Because its menu, location and even the decoration remained same until now. On the other hand, it is obviously smaller than the new one. As we didn’t have any reservations, we couldn’t sit at the original Figlmüller.

While we were waiting on the long queue, some customers recommended us the second branch (Figlmüller Bäckerstraße) located at the back street which was bigger and we were able to find an empty table there by chance. However, I should also add that compared to the other restaurants, we paid slightly higher prices there.

Via the same metro line (U2) we visited The Wurstelprater amusement park, often simply called “Prater”.

It has the oldest Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel at the 2nd district of Vienna. It is a little bit far from the city center. That’s why it is not likely to go there by walking. Prater isn’t a huge complex but you can find the Madame Tussaud Museum and some outdoor diversions.

There may be a queue on the way to the Ferris Wheel but I recommend you to be patient and get on it to see the Vienna from above.

Our last – but not least – destination was on the Green Line (U4) station called Schönbrunn. This station named after Schönbrunn Schloss (Palace). Although we visited the Palace on a gloomy and windy day, its enormous structure and immense gardens were enough to amaze us deeply. We had a tele-guided tour for the indoors of this huge palace. It is a limited edition of other grand tours and limited with more or less 2o most important rooms. After that guided tour, we walked in the garden for about 1 hour and enjoyed the landscape architecture as well the Palace itself.

Bonus 😉 :

This is the image showing how much I enjoyed visiting this beautiful city and eager to be back there soon..